• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Your brain rewards you twice per meal: When you eat and when food reaches your stomach

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
December 27, 2018
in Health
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

We know a good meal can stimulate the release of the feel-good hormone dopamine, and now a study in humans from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Germany suggests that dopamine release in the brain occurs at two different times: at the time the food is first ingested and another once the food reaches the stomach. The work appears December 27 in the journal Cell Metabolism.

“With the help of a new positron emission tomography (PET) technique we developed, we were not only able to find the two peaks of dopamine release, but we could also identify the specific brain regions that were associated with these releases,” says senior author Marc Tittgemeyer (@tittgemeyer), head of the Institute’s Translational Neurocircuitry Group. “While the first release occurred in brain regions associated with reward and sensory perception, the post-ingestive release involved additional regions related to higher cognitive functions.”

In the study, 12 healthy volunteers received either a palatable milkshake or a tasteless solution while PET data were recorded. Interestingly, the subjects’ craving or desire for the milkshake was proportionally linked to the amount of dopamine released in particular brain areas at the first tasting. But the higher the craving, the less delayed post-ingestive dopamine was released.

“On one hand, dopamine release mirrors our subjective desire to consume a food item. On the other hand, our desire seems to suppress gut-induced dopamine release,” says Heiko Backes, group leader for Multimodal Imaging of Brain Metabolism at the Institute, who is co-first author on the study with Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah.

Suppression of gut-induced release could potentially cause overeating of highly desired food items. “We continue to eat until sufficient dopamine was released,” Backes says but adds that this hypothesis remains to be tested in further studies.

Earlier experiments have demonstrated gut-induced dopamine release in mice, but this is the first time it has been shown in humans.

###

This research was funded the German Research Foundation in the Transregional Collaborative Research Center and the German Centre for Diabetes Research.

Cell Metabolism, Thanarajah and Backes et al.:” Food intake recruits orosensory and post-ingestive dopaminergic circuits to effect eating desire in humans.” https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(18)30743-5

Cell Metabolism (@Cell_Metabolism), published by Cell Press, is a monthly journal that publishes reports of novel results in metabolic biology, from molecular and cellular biology to translational studies. The journal aims to highlight work addressing the molecular mechanisms underlying physiology and homeostasis in health and disease. Visit: http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact [email protected].

Media Contact
Carly Britton
[email protected]
617-417-7053
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.12.006

Tags: BiologyNeurochemistryNutrition/NutrientsOlfactory/Taste
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Countries with Highest Hearing Loss Rates Show Lowest Hearing Aid Usage

October 3, 2025

Home-Based Early Medical Abortion Up to 12 Weeks: Safe, Effective, and on Par with Hospital Care

October 3, 2025

Alleviating ECT Anxiety Through Progressive Muscle Relaxation

October 2, 2025

Diabetic Patients in Upper Egypt: Adherence and Perception Insights

October 2, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    92 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    83 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Countries with Highest Hearing Loss Rates Show Lowest Hearing Aid Usage

Home-Based Early Medical Abortion Up to 12 Weeks: Safe, Effective, and on Par with Hospital Care

Stable Sodium-Ion Battery Cathode: K-rich Copper Hexacyanoferrate

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm' to start subscribing.

Join 60 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.